


lost and found

by greywardenblue



Category: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Genre: Book 6: Ashes of Honor, Fictober 2019, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:33:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23171758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greywardenblue/pseuds/greywardenblue
Summary: On the hunt for Chelsea Ames, Toby and her friends find someone in Annwn they weren't prepared for.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	lost and found

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to @NevillesGran for letting me use this idea!
> 
> Prompt:  
> "Follow me. I know the area."

“It’s a colonization,” Toby said. “Riordan is recolonizing Annwn, and she’s using Chelsea to do it.”

Tybalt narrowed his eyes. “That certainly sounds like her, from what I know.”

Toby sighed and leant against him, letting him hold her weight up. The recent injuries by Samson, and having to go through the man’s memories were exhausting enough. “We need to move,” she said, but she didn’t. “We can’t wait long for Etienne. If he doesn’t come back soon, we need to move.”

“There might be something else, in the meantime,” Tybalt said. “There is somebody else nearby.”

“What?” Toby said, but as soon as the word left her mouth, she could feel it already. With all of Samson’s and her own blood around, she didn’t notice it at first, but now that Tybalt pointed it out, it was obvious. There was somebody nearby, and they were bleeding heavily.

They looked at each other for one moment, then Tybalt nodded and they both moved towards the smell of blood, holding each other up.

There was a woman on the ground around the corner, her dress torn, and covered in so much blood that it was difficult to tell the extent of her injuries.

“Damn,” Toby said. “And I thought I bleed a lot.”

“She’s still alive. She has a heartbeat.”

Toby crouched down. The woman was mainly hurt in the abdomen, but there was blood in her hair as well, suggesting a head injury she couldn’t see without getting closer. “With this much blood? I find that difficult to…” She yelped when the woman’s hand shot up to catch hers, and Tybalt was already hissing, yanking Toby back.

The woman stared at them, fury in her eyes. “Who are you? Are you with that man?”

Toby stared, speechless. While the woman was lying down, her face half-covered by her hair, she didn’t notice anything strange, but now, face-to-face, the similarities would have been impossible to ignore.

The stranger looked like Amandine. Not an exact clone of her, but more like her than Toby, and enough like her that the similarity couldn’t be denied. Toby breathed in and the blood smelt smoke and roses, the roses oh-so-familiar that she could have sworn she’d smelt them around the tower before.

“If you are referring to the Cait Sidhe man who likely caused your injuries - no, and he is trying to kill us too,” Tybalt said, recovering. “He will be dealt with, I assure you. Do you… require any assistance?”

There was something wrong. The woman was covered in fresh blood from head to toe, and Toby could clearly tell it was her own blood - yet, there was no sign of injuries, not even in the way she moved. She wrapped her arms around herself protectively, but that seemed to be more because of the state of her clothes than any wound.

“How did you get here?” the stranger demanded. “Do you have a way back?”

Toby glanced at her companions. “We… hope so, yeah. Who are you? How long have you been here? You don’t look like one of Riordan’s people.”

The woman scoffed. “I have nothing to do with Treasa Riordan. My father has a low opinion of her, and he has never been wrong before.” Father, she said, and there was something in the shape of her chin that wasn’t Amandine, something in the colour of her hair, something in her eyes. Toby desperately tried to put the pieces together, but the stranger beat her to it. “My name is August. I am the daughter of Amandine and Simon Torquill. They both live in the Kingdom of Mists, near the Duchy of Shadowed Hills in the Summerlands. My parents will reward you greatly if you help me get home to them, they must be worried sick by now.”

Toby stared. Tybalt started growling again.

The woman stared back. “Well? Are you both imbeciles?” She scoffed. “I don’t know what I expected from a cat and a changeling.”

Tybalt stopped growling and frowned. “I hate to say this, but she does sound like Amandine.” Toby punched him in the arm, but he seemed too lost in thought to respond. “And… it would make sense,” he said quietly. “October and August. The two months embracing September.”

“Simon Torquill?” Toby asked, her voice dangerously high. “Your mother is Amandine, and your father is _Simon Torquill_?”

“That is what I said,” August said with a frown. “Did your human mother drop you on your head or something?”

Toby was about to say something to that, but Tybalt beat her to it. “You could be the daughter of Oberon himself, you will still not talk to October that way,” he said, his eyes shooting lightning. “Her mother is a Firstborn, and her father, though I’ve never met him, is bound to be a more honest person than yours is.”

A woman who claimed to be a daughter of Amandine, and Tybalt standing up for her? Toby wasn’t sure which one was more shocking. Either way, they didn’t have time for this.

“Alright, listen here,” she said, cutting off the stranger. “We’re kind of in the middle of something here. Let’s get back my squire and Etienne’s daughter, and once we’re all safely out of Annwn, we can argue about everyone’s parents. Deal?”

That caught August’s attention. “Sir Etienne is here?”

Toby pushed down the sickening thought that if August recognized Etienne’s name, her fellow knight must have known about her existence. Hell, _Sylvester_ must have known about her. But after it took him decades to tell her he had a niece at all, was she really that surprised that he neglected to mention he had two?

“Yes, he’s here, and you will see him soon. But only if we move, and go back to where Riordan is keeping the others.”

August nodded. “Just follow me, then. I know the area.” She sounded bitter, and again, Toby wondered how long she’d been here. For Toby not to know about her at all, August must have been gone before she was even born.

All of that could wait. For now, they had a colonization attempt to stop, and – with a woman who apparently healed just as fast if not faster than Toby, they might even have a chance.


End file.
